The Straight Paths of the Lord

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and
teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene,
Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While
they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said,
"Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have
called them." Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands
on them and sent them off. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit,
they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in
the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. When
they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came
upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus.
He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence,
who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.
But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name)
withstood them, seeking to turn away the proconsul from the faith.
But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit,
looked intently at him and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy
of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not
stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now,
behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind
and unable to see the sun for a time." Immediately mist and
darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking people to lead him
by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had
occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the
Lord.

The Search and Save Mission of God in Christ

The word Advent means coming. In this season of the year we
focus on the meaning of the coming of the Son of God into the
world. And the spirit of our celebration should be the spirit in
which he came. And the spirit of that coming is summed up in Luke
19:10—"The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

The coming of Jesus was a search and save mission. Not a search
and destroy mission (John 3:17), but a search and save mission.
"The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

So Advent is a season for thinking about the mission of God to
seek and to save lost people from the wrath to come (1
Thessalonians 1:10). It's a season for cherishing and worshiping
this characteristic of God—that he is a searching and saving God,
that he is a God on a mission, that he is not aloof or passive or
indecisive. He is never in the maintenance mode, coasting or
drifting. He is sending, pursuing, searching, saving. That's the
meaning of Advent.

Acts as a Celebration of the Advent-Heart of God

And that is why the book of Acts is a celebration of the
advent-heart of God. Because it's a narration of his on-going
advent into more and more peoples of the world. Acts is the story
of how the early church understood the words, "As the Father has
sent me, so send I you" (John 20:21). It's the story of how the
vertical advent of God in the mission of Jesus bends out and
becomes the horizontal advent of Jesus in the mission of the
church. It's all one piece.

More and more I believe that this book is in the New Testament
to prevent the church from coasting to a standstill and entering a
maintenance mode with all the inner wheels working but going
nowhere—"adventing" into no new people groups or no new ventures
or no new exploits for the kingdom. The book of Acts is a constant
indictment of mere maintenance Christianity. It's a constant goad
and encouragement and stimulation to fan the flame of Advent—"The
Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost."

God Fanning the Flame of Advent

Today's text presses this truth on us again, just like the last
two texts have. In chapter 11 we saw God fanning the flame of
Advent as he used the persecution of Stephen to push his people out
of Judea all the way to Antioch to seek and save the lost. In
chapter 12 we saw God fanning the flame of Advent as he struck down
a secular ruler, Herod, who was trying to oppose the Advent of the
Christian faith.

Today in chapter 13 we see God fan the flame of Advent as he
propels Paul and Barnabas and John out of Antioch into the utterly
lost pagan world of Cyprus and beyond. You can just feel the advent
arm of God flexing in every one of these texts. This is not the
work of man. God catapulted his people out of Jerusalem with
persecution. God cut down Herod. And here it is God who speaks in
the midst of worship and sends his advent team to Cyprus.

Barnabas and Saul Sent to Cyprus

Verse 2: "While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the
Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work
to which I have called them.'" God took the initiative to make this
advent into Cyprus! Then verse 4: "So, being sent out by the Holy
Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to
Cyprus." God not only took the initiative to call the advent
emissaries. He is the one who does the actual sending—the Holy
Spirit said set them apart and the Holy Spirit sent them on their
way. In other words this is God's work. Acts is narration of the
advent-heart of God to seek and save the lost.

When the advent emissaries get to Paphos on Cyprus something
happens that gives us another forceful demonstration that God's
advent heart will not be frustrated. His mission will not be
stopped. Paul uses some new words to make this truth fresh for
us.

A Hearing Before the Governor

In Paphos Sergius Paulus the governor (or proconsul) tries to
hear the Word of God. Verse 7: He was "a man of intelligence, who
summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God."
This is amazing. He is the ruler of all Cyprus. These missionaries
are absolute nobodies in the Roman world. They have no human
authority. They have no political standing. They have no world
ecclesiastical body behind them. They are unknowns.

But they are called by God, sent by God, and now it is God that,
against all odds, has gotten them a hearing on their first mission
with the governor of the whole island of Cyprus. It's like
Cornelius all over again. A pagan who wants to hear the Word of
God. And God—through worship and fasting—calls nobodies from
Antioch to make the connection.

Elymas Gets in the Way

But just as the word is about to be spoken to Sergius Paulus,
Bar-Jesus who was called Elymas, the magician (or spiritist or
witch doctor or shaman) in his court, gets in the way. Now here is
where the new terminology of Paul comes out. In verse 8 it says,
"Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name)
withstood them, seeking to turn away the proconsul from the
faith."

So here is another anti-advent force in the world—like Herod in
chapter 12. His explicit aim is to turn away the proconsul from the
faith—to defeat the advent purpose of God.

In verse 10 it becomes even clearer what Elymas is doing. Paul
says to him, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness,
full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked
the straight paths of the Lord?" This is the new terminology I am
talking about—making crooked the straight paths of the Lord.

What Are the Straight Paths of the Lord?

What are the straight paths of the Lord? And how do you make
them crooked? The answer is clear when you discover that the word
for "turn away" in verse 8 and the word for "make crooked" in verse
10 is the same Greek word (diastrepho).

What is the making crooked of the straight paths of God? It's
what Elymas was doing in verse 8—he was seeking to turn aside the
proconsul from the faith. "Turn aside" (in v. 8) corresponds with
"make crooked" (in v. 10). And "from the faith" (in v. 8)
corresponds with "the straight paths of the Lord" (in v. 10). So
the way you make crooked the straight paths of the Lord is to get
in the way of people coming to faith.

God Has Straight Paths Leading to Faith

Now two wonderful things come out of this. One is to see that
God has straight paths for himself that lead to faith. This is the
advent-heart of God. God sees a Sergius Paulus in Paphos, Cyprus.
He means to seek him and save him. 275 miles away he sees prophets
and teachers worshiping and fasting, seeking the mind of God. And
he sees a straight path that leads to faith—call the advent
emissaries, send them out, guide them to Paphos, arrange a meeting
with the governor, and bring him to faith. That is the straight path
of God.

That's the first thing to see here. God has straight paths. He
is still the pursuing God sending his church like he sent his Son
to seek and save the lost.

Elymas Fails in Making the Straight Path Crooked

The second thing to see is that Elymas does not succeed in his
attempt to make the straight path crooked. He would like to see the
path of Paul and Barnabas go out the back door of the palace and
dead end in the Mediterranean Sea. But it will not happen.

Verse 11: "And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you,
and you shall be blind and unable to see the sun for a time." Verse
12: "Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred,
for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord."

God took the very effort of Elymas to make crooked the path of
God and hinder the faith of Sergius Paulus, and he not only
overcame it, he took it in his hand, laid it in the path and made
Sergius Paulus step on it, and used it to bring the governor to
faith.

What This Means for Us Today

What all this says for us at Bethlehem just now is at least two
things. One is that God is a searching and saving God; that he is a
God on a mission; he has straight paths that lead to faith; he is
still sending us "to seek and to save the lost." He is not aloof or
passive or indecisive. He is never in the maintenance mode,
coasting or drifting. He is sending,
pursuing, searching, saving.
And he calls us to join him.

We will meet Wednesday to talk budget and mission for next year.
The word for us is: don't think maintenance in this new facility;
think mission. Think of the book of Acts and the remaining work to
be done before Jesus comes. "The Son of Man came to seek and to
save the lost." If we don't join him, he will leave us behind.

The other thing is that there will, of course, be people and
situations that make crooked the straight paths of the Lord. There
will always be hindrances. There will be persecutions and Herods
and Elymases. But the point again and again is this: God makes
persecution a launching pad for missions; he takes Herod out of the
way; he strikes Elymas blind. He carries his advent emissaries
forward along the straight paths of faith.

So we have tremendous reason to be hopeful and confident this Advent season. God's goal is faith—in more and more people and
peoples. If we join him on that straight path, he will clear the
way. He is on the move. Let's join him.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.

Share the Joy! You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in physical form, in its entirety or in unaltered excerpts, as long as you do not charge a fee. For posting online, please use only unaltered excerpts (not the content in its entirety) and provide a hyperlink to this page. For videos, please embed from the original source. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Desiring God.